This is a Test: Music For Appreciating and Evaluating Headphones or Hi-fi

A quick intro: Scott Eastlick has been writing for AudioStream on many things music-related, creating original sonic mixes for our readers there to enjoy and to explore, and moving forward may even scribble the odd hardware review. Please welcome him here to InnerFidelity, as I thought some of the mixes he's been doing for AudioStream would be a great fit here too. His bio is at the bottom of this article. – Rafe Arnott

*SOME TRACKS CONTAIN EXPLICIT LYRICS

While my love for music is as preternatural as my love for sugar, oxygen, and affection, I’ve never considered myself to be a bonafide audiophile.

Even if I have the ear, I don’t have the income; so me wanting to be an audiophile is a bit like a greeter at Walmart having a penchant for single malt scotch.

Though my recent experiences evaluating high-end gear and writing glossaries of audiophile terminology have taught me to truly understand the flaws of my own equipment. It leaves me feeling how Madonna must when she sees an un-airbrushed photograph of her arms.

Reading countless hi-fi reviews and forum threads, I’ve also come to realize the extent to which people use undeniably great equipment to listen to unbelievably bad music.

The refrain is that top-tier equipment reveals details in the music that inferior gear would leave unexposed, and to that gospel I have converted, but a pair of $1,200 headphones isn’t going to make me appreciate Taylor Swift any more than the disposable earbuds they give out on the plane.

This is a Test represents an attempt to cull some of the most impeccably-produced music ever recorded with consideration for those who test, review, or strive to better appreciate audio gear, while also working as a listenable playlist for those who do not.

Track Listing

Circlesquare – All Sleepers (prod by Konrad Black)

Massive Attack – Angel

The Knife – Silent Shout

Isolee – Beau Mot Plage

Aphex Twin – Minipops 67 (Source Field Mix)

Skee Mask feat. Jonas Yamer - Fanta Ocean

A$AP Rocky - Hun3rd

Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts

Atom TM – I Love U (Like I Love My Drum Machine)

Alvo Noto – U_08-1

Air – Don’t Be Light

Daft Punk - Beyond

Perfume Genius - Queen

James Blake - Don’t Miss It

Steve Miller Band - Fly Like an Eagle

Steely Dan – Hey Nineteen

Can – Vitamin C

Kraftwerk – Antenne

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing

Tommy Jones & the Shondells - Cellophane Symphony

Radiohead – Nude

Brian Eno – Bottomliners

Sigur Ros – Staralfur

Max Richter – On the Nature of Daylight

Ella Fitzgerald – Someone to Watch Over Me

Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker – Harry and Dolly

Donald Byrd - Cristo Redentor

Nils Frahm – Fa

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Hand Covers Bruise

Boston Acoustics Bass Test

Subwoofer Bass Test

Plastikman – Disconnect

Oneohtrix Point Never – I Only Have Eyes for You

The Field – From Here We Go Sublime

The Flamingos – I Only Have Eyes for You

Scott Eastlick is best known as the mind behind the Electric Adolescence website and radio show, as well as some other writing both for and about the music industry. While his love for music predates his ability to speak, his induction into audiophile culture is more recent.

Scott has been converted to the benefits of high-quality gear, but also believes that while it is essential for an astronomer to use the best possible equipment, their appreciation of the telescope should never supersede their love for the stars.

I don't believe for a second you can measure high frequency response half as easily as when you can pay attention to hall ambiance in a recording where none of the instruments are electrically amplified. These are also recordings where there is also an objective sense of what an instrument should sound like. I get it, though: that's not your interest here. But it's a central question to how you judge hardware with test tracks that don't do this. Why you consider all these "impeccably-produced" is an important question. I personally know why I would want a Steve Albini-produced album on my test menu. This article would be way more valuable if you could offer a reason, even a sentence, why each of these tracks matter to you.

It might be fair to suggest that these "impeccably-produced" songs were "right" straight out of the can. There's no Rudy van Gelder edition of Steely Dan where the old (and I mean so old his ears probably didn't fully work any more) producer went back and did strange things to the sound, messing with stereo spreads, high-frequency rendering and whatnot, so yeah, maybe they are fine tracks to reach to. But where you go to jazz, it's a fair question what release of Byrd's "A New Perspective" we should look for. Some of those Rudy redos sound like crap.

So anyway, I wish there was a whole lot more here. And I'm not an audiophile. I just believe that "testing", if you're going to bother, can be more or less methodical, and that being more methodical helps.

Right. One can not evaluate headphones without piping the sound of acoustic instruments through them - a good baroque ensemble of chamber music would do or a good real American music band playing Country, Folk, Americana, Roots. The accuracy of tonality matters.

These tracks made my HE-560 come alive in ways I didn't know were possible. Fantastic headphones. Very crisp sound, and that low end has both depth and texture. Thanks for the playlist. Already followed you at Mixcloud as a result of this.